


Together Chart the Course

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Charity Auctions, Gen, Pregnancy, mention of delivery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 15:57:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12560960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Ahsoka and Padmé lean on each other in the face of the destruction of their ways of life.





	Together Chart the Course

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AceQueenKing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/gifts).



> AU: Ahsoka was not at Mandalore, but on Coruscant, and already in contact with Padmé at the time of RotS.

"Are you certain this is safe?"

It wasn't the first time the question had been asked, but Ahsoka looked over at the woman in her fur-lined parka and nodded. They needed to be stable and hidden for now. Twice, now, Ahsoka had had to reach the minds of the restless twins and calm them, to stave off premature labor.

"Padmé, Shili's distant areas have little in the way of strangers. Yes, you will stand out, but no one will say anything where it can get back to anyone else," Ahsoka reassured her. "The village I chose is where my parents are from, and they are kinfast to me, even if I am — even if I was a Jedi. My brother said we will be safe, and I believe him."

Padmé managed a smile. "I don't tend to think of Jedi having families, even though I knew Ani—"

She cut herself off, and Ahsoka did not press. Anakin Skywalker was dead to them, and the memories still burned with ash and fire against their hearts. They had both loved him, one as wife and the other as student.

"Chanar is my elder brother, borne to my mother. My father had never sired a child until me, but I have, as far as I know, two more younger siblings that are probably out with my parents on their surveys." Ahsoka went back to shoring up the wall of the small dwelling they had been allowed to use while they hid here. Padmé should probably be inside, but she'd insisted on coming out to hand things over as Ahsoka needed them.

"What do they do? Your parents?"

Ahsoka grinned. "They're a roving biology tech team. They document the free herds, and the predators, while helping if any herd shows illness. They will go anywhere, but the taiga is their usual range. My mother is the actual tech, and father heads up the support team."

"And they have two children in that life?"

"As far as I know, unless one or the other has apprenticed or chosen school by now. It's why I wasn't tested at birth; mother had me while on a contract, about thirty klicks from here, actually. I was raised on their job, until events brought me into contact with the Jedi."

The Jedi. Ahsoka still could not really say their names, especially _his_. The betrayal was still there in the back of her mind, but worse, she knew he was dead. Her Finder would have been killed instantly, when the men turned.

There was a part of her mind that wished Anakin Skywalker had faced that fate too. Knowing he had fallen… that stung her to the quick, but at least she had saved Padmé from whatever fate the Sith had planned for her. As soon as Anakin had left Padmé's apartment, Ahsoka, who had tracked him there after failing to reach the Temple in time, had convinced the woman to run away.

"So… if I choose to raise the twins on the job, so to speak, you won't think less of me?" Padmé asked after a very long period of just working. Ahsoka gave her a quick, hard smile.

"We're going to have a lot of work to do, Padmé. They're going to have to be with us while we do it."

* * *

"We were both right," Padmé murmured as Ahsoka pronounced the second child was a boy. Ahsoka ignored that reference to her Master, to the father of these squirmy, mottled, red things that would eventually be humans. She'd never considered how messy human birthing was even after reading up on what would be needed.

She almost wished she had kept Threepio with them; Padmé had said he'd been memorizing med droid protocols for birth.

"There's supposed to be… eww, gross," Ahsoka said as the rest of the process continued, urging a tiny, tired laugh from the human.

"If you hadn't chosen to live so naturally, this could have been a lot more tidy," Padmé reminded. "But I'm glad you did think about the spinal block."

"Got used to using those on my men," Ahsoka said before she choked off the memories. They would never be her men again. She had seen the carnage at the Temple, around it, and only evaded the fighting to protest Padmé. Not, she knew, that she could have made much of a difference against the full weight of the 501st under… under _his_ direction.

No, she needed to stop that. She couldn't upset the children and FORCE but they were so bright with energy and perception already.

Clean up, of both the area around the birthing stool and the babies themselves was handled swiftly, and Ahsoka tucked the swaddled infants in with their mother in the bed. She probably ought to be right on hand, but she needed air, needed the freedom of skies around her.

"Going outside, Padmé. You three just rest a bit."

"Alright."

Wearing her own parka, Ahsoka wandered out, right up to the fence that protected the village from stampeding beasts and predators alike. She leaned on it; it was daylight so the thing wasn't currently electrified. Her heart ached, and she wondered just what kind of life the twins would have, what life truly waited for the pair of women once they moved back into the realm of galactic politics.

"They'll be free," she promised herself, vaguely threatening the remnant of the Jedi Order and the Sith alike with that promise to her god-children.

* * *

They stayed on Shili for three months after the birth. When they did leave, Ahsoka had to trust in the Force, and Padmé's instincts, to choose where they would go. Running silent, and using secondary hyperlanes let her avoid potential ship fights, until she was finally able to send one pulse code message to the Senator of Alderaan, on Padmé's authority.

They were very far from the commercial lanes when they got a reply and coordinates for a rendezvous. When they arrived, they had a short wait, hidden in the shadow of a moon, before the _Tantive IV_ appeared, using running lights to pass a coded all-clear across to the watching Senator of Naboo.

"Ahsoka?"

The younger woman reached out, touching the Force, and then nodded. "It should be safe."

"Signal that we will dock."

Doing so, and rigging up the twins in a carrying harness on Padmé, the pair of women prepared to learn the truth that had happened after they had escaped Coruscant. For better or worse, they had to choose their future now, and suspected strongly it was going to lead to a long fight against the Sith.

They passed through the airlocks, and came out to find Bail Organa himself there and waiting, his eyes going wide at the sight of the carrying harness and its burdens. The real shock, for Ahsoka, though, was that the man in Alderaanian livery beside him was none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi, hair cut military short. The facial hair, likewise, had been trimmed back to a thinner mustache and goatee.

"Hello there," Obi-Wan said softly, eyes focusing on Ahsoka after one, brief look at Padmé and the children she carried. There was pain in his eyes, Ahsoka could see, but he was trying to work past it.

"Hello," Ahsoka replied, but she was tracking Bail in the next instant as he spoke and moved.

"No wonder you were gone before the fires had died," Bail said, gesturing for them to follow him. Ahsoka let Padmé move ahead of her, but her eyes and montrals were out for any threats at all. "We feared you dead. Your protocol droid could not say anything when we recovered him."

"He was in shut-down when Ahsoka came for me," Padmé said. "I hated leaving him, but hoped my staff would remove him before things got too bad."

"I, and my friends, arrived before your staff had fully cleared the apartment. They, and your droid, are in my safe-keeping on Alderaan," Bail told her, allowing Ahsoka to feel the surge of relief in her friend. 

"I hope I, nor they, have placed you in a bad position."

Bail shook his head. "The galaxy is in a bad position, and we all share the burden of recovering it."

"I am eager to learn the full scope, and apply my skills wherever I may," Padmé answered that. "Ahsoka will be at my side, to aid with my children, so there is quite a range of ability in this offer."

"We will need it all, Padmé. And your children will have all the protection Alderaan can offer. I am certain Breha is going to be overjoyed to know you survived."

Ahsoka listened, as they settled into a conference room, listening to all Bail, and then Obi-Wan, had to say about the current state of the Galaxy. The Sith held Coruscant, and many worlds where the clone troopers had already been, but it wasn't a full victory yet. The Fleet was beginning to make strides on that level, and the Separatists were apparently divided but lacking armies, as their droids had been shut down.

Padmé and Ahsoka shared a look as the task of a Rebellion was laid out, subtly reinforcing their promise to one another. They would fight, and they would raise the twins. Ultimately, that was all either woman could do, in the face of the evil building.

At least they had each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Ahsoka's family comes from my other AU: [When A Child Stays Lost](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9388181)
> 
> Yes, the Prequels stated Leia was born second. The Prequels lied. Leia is totally a firstborn.


End file.
